seeing things

north was not indicated on the map, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

-- Albert Einstein

7. 14. 25. 5.

sunset in burnished gold, originally uploaded by McBeth.

When I'm worried or tired or sad or melty or feeling vulnerable I can sit still for hours, moving only my index finger to the 'refresh' button for inconsequential split-second updates on the number of individual image views of four consecutive pictures on my Flickr photostream. This can go on like that, with me unmoved, in that spot, for hours.

You would think there would be some ultimate reward for the devotional steadfast unmovingness, some personal satisfaction or reward, but if you did think that you would be wrong. The numbers stay the same. The numbers always stay the same. For hours and hours they will remain, unmoved,


Seven.
Fourteen.
Twenty five.
Five.

click.
click.
click.
click.

walk this way

you can fly, originally uploaded by McBeth.

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

-- Beverly Sills

cow magnetism

three cows, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I'm sure there must be all kinds of studies done on cows because, well, there are an awful lot of cows grazing around the globe right now so it'd make sense that if something exists somewhere, someone will start picking it apart to figure it out, including cows. But the one that recently caught my attention and a good deal of my chin stroking rumination time recently is this one. Someone wanted to know if cows responded to the Earth's magnetic North<-->South pull. So they found a way to start counting heads, researched it, and were pleased to announce that yes indeed, cows gravitate to the magnetic north.

We marked the cattle’s longitudinal axis by drawing a straight line with the Powerpoint drawing tools and estimated for each animal separately its direction to the nearest 5° by overlaying a circular scale with 10° steps.

I find this news not only fascinating, but deeply gratifying. All these years I've noticed this phenomena -and in southern Wisconsin there is ample opportunity for cow watching. I figured I was making too much out of it, or that I just kept seeing random occurrences and making up associations to suit myself. I do like making things up into far more fanciful compounds than they really need be. If I didn't, though, I'd get terrifically bored. But as it turns out this time I wasn't making anything up after all!

I'd love to see the extrapolated research on cow magnetism.

For instance, would it make sense, then, that if cows gravitate to magnetic North we could assume the cows would feel most natural, most comfortable pointed that direction? And if that's true, then would construction of the barns and milking houses based on the magnetic directional pull, specifically during those times the cows are standing to be milked or are eating, cause any difference in the milk production and the general contentment of the herd?

My mother tells me a story about old farming relatives, or it might possibly be farmer friends of my farming relatives. The specific 'who' is less important than the action, though, so lets agree not to pick nits about that one thing. The men of the family had to do something, go somewhere, be away from the farm for a few days, so the women of the family took over the outdoor chores, including milking the cows. The women sang while they worked, which the cows apparently loved, because their milk production increased several fold. There's another local guy, loveable salt of the earth musician farmer guy, who performs violin concerts for his cows. The cows have not written one bad review yet.

I'm not sure I can write a coherent explanation to express my impression, but might this magnetic pull on cows research might also support the argument for string theory and quantum physics? If this magnetic property exists in cows, then what other animals are similarly affected, and why does it happen? If it is true of humans then what might be the manifestations of a magnetic pull on us?

Next cow research I'll be scoping out will be evidence to support my theory that in every herd there will always be one cow evacuating its bladder or bowels when you pass by them at 55mph.

great and small

backseat driver, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.

-- Charles Dickens

it could happen

oh please oh please, originally uploaded by McBeth.

You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.

-- Charles F. Kettering

start creating

I'm melting, mellllting, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake...

-Francis Bacon

picture it

stand with your sisters, originally uploaded by McBeth.

An attempt at visualizing the Fourth Dimension: Take a point, stretch it into a line, curl it into a circle, twist it into a sphere, and punch through the sphere.

-- Albert Einstein

refinement

gilt, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money.

-- Pablo Picasso

either you got it or you don't

queen of the fire ring, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time.


-- Anna Freud

hold them close

dana and scarlett, originally uploaded by McBeth.

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.

-- Washington Irving

stoking the fires

what's on your mind, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Egotism: The art of seeing in yourself what others cannot see.

-- George V. Higgins

triangulation

cranial yoga, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

-- Carl Gustav Jung

two choices

peacekeeping, originally uploaded by McBeth.

There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.

-- Denis Waitley

our children's children's children

army of change, originally uploaded by McBeth.

If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

i seen 'em

strangers among us, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I don't believe that there are no spiritual beings around us. I don't know what to call them, I don't know how they work. But I know they're there.


-- Martha Beck

the dancer's foot

three of many, originally uploaded by McBeth.

In life as in dance: Grace glides on blistered feet.

-- Alice Abrams

empty pockets

father of the bride, originally uploaded by McBeth.

You cannot hold on to anything good. You must be continually giving - and getting. You cannot hold on to your seed. You must sow it - and reap anew. You cannot hold on to riches. You must use them and get other riches in return.

-- Robert Collier

not unusual

six legged, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

-- Andre Gide

inside us

sshhh..., originally uploaded by McBeth.

It is important to remember that we all have magic inside us.

--Joanne Kathleen Rowling

one day at a time

that was yesterday, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time.

-- Charlie Brown

come home

swoopy, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Dark clouds are comin' like an army
Soon the sky will open up and disarm me
You will go just like you've gone before
One sad soldier off to war, enemies that only you can see.

Dishes stacked, the table cleared
It's always like the scene of the last supper here
You speak so cryptically that's not news to me
The flood is here it will carry you
And I've got work to do.

Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.

There is fire there is lust
Some will trade it all for someone they could trust
There's a bag of silver for a box of nails
It's so simple the betrayal
Though it's known to change the world and what's to come.

There's the given and the expected
I count my blessings while I eye what I've neglected
Is this for better is this for worse
You're all jammed up and the dam's about to burst.

I hear the owl in the night
I realize that some things never are made right
By some will we string together here
Days to months and months to years
What if everything we have adds up to nothing.

Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
But it's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles.

-- Indigo Girls

put your feet up

toll takers, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Rest when you're weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.

-- Ralph Marston

secure yourself

stock and barrel, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.

-- Carl Gustav Jung

you just never know

j. and ray, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The manners of mankind do not differ so widely as our voyage writers would make us believe. Perhaps it would be more entertaining to add a few surprising customs of my own invention, but nothing seems to me so agreeable as truth.

-- Mary Worley

say it like you mean it

anthropological research, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, skeptically of skepticism.

-- Blaise Pascal

coming together

silhouettes, originally uploaded by McBeth.

What's natural and right is to go with the energy of how it all has to work together. What's natural and right is interconnectedness, not individualism. What is natural and right is respect for the system, not killing the system. What's natural and right is love.

-- Susan Powter

flying

safely keep me, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this livin' is just a hard way to go

-- John Prine

all of us

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

All of us, all over the globe, have the capacity for exuberance. Whether we explore that, well, that's another question entirely. But this guy knows what's what and has gotten his groove on all sorts of countries in all kinds of places. He professes not to be a good dancer (one dance and not very good at it, says he) but I gotta estimate it must be good enough that others pick up the spirit of the thing and join in.

Maybe we could all benefit from happy dancing more often. Let's start small. Headphones or home stereo, dancing not-in-public. Then we'll work our way up: dance in front of loved ones. Ignore their snickering, they're just jealous because they desperately want to be as hip and jiggy as you are when you do your happy dance. Invite them to join you. Then we all could start happy dancing out in our neighborhoods, our town halls, our grocery stores, in our schools, in houses of worship (yes, even you Lutherans. It's okay; God's down with it), in nursing homes and daycare centers.

Consider making a deal with me?
With my right hand on my keyboard and my left hand on the mouse, I hereby promise to happy dance 1x daily (not-in-public) for the coming week starting tomorrow. Will you try it with me - do a happy dance 1x daily? -- public or not, your choice. I'm looking forward to reporting back and, hopefully, hearing about your experiences.

C'mon, you know you want to.
Everybody does it.
It'll make you smile.

...c'mon ... it'll be easy.


Did you find the video sniffle inducing?
(yeah, me too.)
Okay then.

LET'S DANCE!

what's the rush

chores can wait, let's talk, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Slow down you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time.

-- Billy Joel

fealty

1969, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul.

-- Mark Twain

manners

dinner invitation, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I seek constantly to improve my manners and graces, for they are the sugar to which all are attracted.

-- Og Mandino

Pink Cadillac

pink plates, originally uploaded by McBeth.

While driving home this afternoon from a photo gig on the way to my new other job, Bruce Springsteen's song Pink Cadillac came on the radio channel I was listening to.

Now please don't mark me as unpatriotic or unAmerican or un-whatever, but Springsteen doesn't really do it for me. I've tried. I really have tried. But his groaning and moaning and poor elocution sound the same in most of his songs and at the very least, sounds the same in the Springsteen tunes I am familiar with.

Springsteen comes on ... Honey I just wonder what you do there in back of your pink Cadillac ... The hair at the nape of my neck bristled. Grr. Choices choices choices: sing along, be friendly with that which I don't feel fondly. Or. turn off the radio, which may require energy. Nope, I can't muster enough to do it. Or.

Or.
Or start chuckling in appreciation for perfect timing. Because right then a Very Successful Mary Kay lady commandeered her very big very shiny expensive car around the corner of the intersection I was waiting at.

The universe has a perversely satisfying sense of humor.

heading out

we're in no hurry, originally uploaded by McBeth.

It's over, and can't be helped, and that's one consolation, as they always says in Turkey, when they cuts the wrong man's head off.

-- Charles Dickens

Welcome, Isla

kd and isla, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I love a hand that meets my own with a grasp that causes some sensation.

-- Samuel Osgood

expectations

calla, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.

-- Margaret Mitchell

slow down

hen, originally uploaded by McBeth.

He who pours water hastily into a bottle spills more than goes in.

-- Spanish proverb

how you look

sticking the mount, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.

-- Frederick Langbridge

smile though

the munchies, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open.

-- Emma Goldman

childhood reflections

funny faces for auntie mcb, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Childhood is not only the childhood we really had but also the impressions we formed of it in our adolescence and maturity. That is why childhood seems so long. Probably every period of life is multiplied by our reflections upon the next.

-- Cesare Pavese

in the garden

whisper right here, originally uploaded by McBeth.

While discussing some subject matter
that may have been relevant, timely
or possibly important,

The center of my left pupil connected to the center of her right pupil.
They locked.
I was fully aware that it was happening, as it happened.
This event lasted approximately four point two seconds.

Moments later I recognized the tremble of my exhilarated finger tip nerves,
and realized my life will never be the same.

up in the air

boiiiiing, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Think off-center.

-- George Carlin

numbers

how high can you get?, originally uploaded by McBeth.

It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.

-- George W. Bush

culinary lesson

lunch date with KD, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Caste System

1. Brahmans: priests
2. Kshatriyas: royals or warriors
3. Vaisyas: merchants or professionals
4. Sudras: workers
5. Untouchables: beggars or diseased

inheritance

sideways glance, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children.

-- Native American proverb

begin here

so easy to open up to you, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings. Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest.The blessing is in the seed.

-- Muriel Rukeyser

have a heart

drop by drop, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Talk on, talk on, but love is what you need.
And sooner or later that love is gonna make you bleed.

-- Bonnie Raitt

human being

dried up, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Focus your attention not on what you are doing but rather, who you are being.

barely blushing

her lips were so soft, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The spiritualization of sensuality is called love: it is a great triumph over Christianity.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

okay

a body at rest, originally uploaded by McBeth.

“I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it -- I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know -- but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am me, and I am Okay.

-- Virginia Satir

mother's day

there'll be no 'smile pretty and say cheese' here, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Oh, what a complicated blend of frustration, envy, anger, hopelessness, commitment and deep deep love I have with my mother.

I admire her for so so so many of her fine qualities. She is gentle, especially with the children she works with in the public schools, kids who don't have anything near that kind of compassion and patience with their own parents.

I was angry for a long time, probably too long, when my son was young, when my mom would let other people's kids call her 'gramma' because they either didn't know their own grandparents, or the kids' grandparents lived across the country, making relationship difficult. That's how she is though, giving out so much to others, sometimes more than I personally think she ought.

I'm sure I did things that embarrassed my mother along the years. I sometimes used my smart mouth to my own disadvantage, I have a vigorous stubborn streak (still).

I'd like to say to you today mom, I think we've done alright despite our imperfections. I continue to love you beyond measure. And I hope I am shaping up to be the person you hoped I'd grow up to be.

xo